


He'll Come Back to Me (Maybe Some Day)

by Madiedoodle



Series: Maybe Some Day [1]
Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Sort of - Fandom
Genre: Captain America Bucky, I Tried, M/M, Role Reversal, Winter Soldier Steve, steve is breaking my heart here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 02:54:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5768623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madiedoodle/pseuds/Madiedoodle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve fell off the train, and Bucky was left to continue the job, to crash the plane into the ice, to wake up again seventy years later to take on the mantle of Captain America.</p>
<p>And now Bucky is the one to see the ghost of his best friend, and try to bring him back. And maybe some day, HIS Steve will come back to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Another Tumblr prompt "Okay how about this prompt? I warn you I'm bad at this In the trailer when Steve asks if Bucky remembers, could you write a role reversal? WS!Steve trapped and found by Bucky (and Sam maybe?) I just need this."
> 
> I tried my best, and hopefully it turned out alright.

Bucky had thought that he would never be as heartbroken, as shattered as he was when he pulled the mask off the Winter Soldier, only to reveal Steve behind that cruel muzzle. Steve, sweet Steve, his Steve. His Steve, who had died in the mountains years ago, his Steve who had been the most honorable person that Bucky ever knew. The person who he considered to be the greatest hero, even after working with an entire team of super heroes. His Steve, who was apparently the Winter Soldier, killing people, doing the bidding of HYDRA, his Steve who didn’t remember him anymore. 

Bucky didn’t think anything could break his heart more than that string of realization. But the scene before him proved him wrong, pulled his hear out of his chest and tore it to shreds, as he gazed upon the hunched and broken form of Steve, trapped and terrified. Long hair covering his eyes in a way Bucky knew his Steve would have hated, arm bent at a painful angle behind him and trapped in a vice, eyes almost frantic in a way that reminded Bucky of a caged animal, and he had no doubt that if he could, Steve would have ripped that arm off and escaped. 

“Stevie….. Do you remember me?” he asked hesitantly, Sam standing protectively next to him as they both watched to see how Steve would react to his presence. 

“Your name is James Buchnan Barnes. Your mom was named Winifred. You were my best friend.” Steve said after a moment, voice gravely and rough from disuse, eyes less wild as they focused on where Bucky stood. He couldn’t help the way his heart sped up as Steve spoke, his breathe hitching as he realized that Steve remembered him, at least a little bit. The blankness was gone from Steve’s eyes, replaced with fear, sadness, and blessed recognition. It was more than Bucky had hoped for, but it still hurt him to know what had happened to Steve, Steve who was no longer HIS Steve, Steve who was taken from him. But at least a portion of him was back, a portion of him who knew who he was, remembered his moms name but didn’t even mention his own. And that scared Bucky too, that maybe Steve didn’t even know who he was. 

“You’re a wanted man.” He said quietly, and Steve gave rueful shake of his head, eyes pleading up at Bucky.

“I don’t do that anymore.” he replied, grim and sad and broken.

“The people who think you did are coming for you right now, and they’re not planning on taking you alive.” Bucky said, as Sam shook his head, knowing full well what was about to happen.

“Let them come. I deserve whatever it is they do.” Steve said after a long pause, tucking his chin to his chest, voice resigned as he knelt there on the ground. 

“You don’t deserve to be killed Steve, come on. You were tortured, brain washed, you weren’t even you. It wasn’t you, it was them.” Bucky replied, straining not to shout, voice tight with emotion. He wanted so badly to touch Steve, to give a comforting hand, but who knew how that would be received. 

“Dogs who bite get put down.” Steve replied, voice monotone and measured, as if repeating something he had heard thousands of times. 

“You ain’t a dog, pal. You’re Steven Grant Rogers. Your moms name was Sarah, and you are my best friend. And I’m getting you out of here. I didn’t spend months trying to find you, so that you can just quit on me now.” He said, and with that Steve looked up at him, analyzing him. 

“Why did you come to find me? I tried to kill you. You were my mission.” Steve’s voice was neutral now, blank and unfeeling, as if he didn’t care about the answer. 

“I told you, you’re my best pal. Til the end of the line, punk.” He said quietly, inching closer and closer to Steve, until he was crouched directly in front of him. 

“I don’t remember much.” Steve said quietly, voice now full of sadness, no longer cold in the way it had been a few seconds ago. Bucky spared a moment to wonder if he was being played, but decided the thought wasn’t worth it. If Steve killed him now, at least he wouldn’t have to live with the pain of losing HIS Steve. 

“I don’t care. You’re still Steve, memories or not. I’ll help you try to remember. I can tell you all the stories.” He replied, softly and quietly, looking directly into those familiar and yet foreign eyes. Hydra had even taken the sparkle from Steve’s, changing them from pools of clear water to steel, unnerving and cold even as they remained the same eyes that Bucky knew so well. 

“If they’re coming after me, you’ll be in danger. I don’t remember a lot, but I remember that I don’t want you to be in danger.” He said, and Bucky could practically hear Sam’s smirk. At least that was something that the Steve and Sam would agree on. 

“He’s in more danger when he doesn’t know where you are actually. Reckless, careless.” Sam pipes up, and Steve looks up at the newcomer.

“He always has been a reckless bastard.” He said quietly as he looked Sam over, assessing him just as he had assessed Bucky. Sam stood his ground, before turning his eyes on Bucky. 

“I know a guy who can get him fixed up. Not as good as Tony, but he can do as good a job as any.” Sam said, nodding his head towards Bucky’s arm as it sat trapped in the vice. “We’ve just gotta get him out, and get him there safe.” 

“I can get him out.” Bucky said, turning back to Steve, who was gazing up at him, eyes again blank. “You’ve gotta promise not to run, Stevie. We’re trying to help.” He said, and Steve nodded once. Bucky figured that was as good as he was gonna get, and moved towards the vice. “I’m gonna lift it, you’ve gotta pull your arm out fast. This is gonna hurt pal.” He said, before moving over to the vice, placing both hands on it as he began to pry it open.

He was shaking by the time he had forced it open enough for Steve to pull the mangled metal arm out, and Steve had given his own small cry of pain as he moved the arm out of the way. Once it was gone Bucky relaxed, leaning against the vice and catching his breathe. He could feel his torn muscles healing as he leaned there, and he shook his head to clear it.   
Steve was struggling to his feet, using his good arm to prop himself up, and Sam looked on in resigned long sufferingness. The sound of helicopters and moving feet burst to existence just within Bucky’s range of hearing, and Steve heard it too, snapping up and looking at Bucky for orders, a movement that chilled Bucky to the core. The idea of Steve willingly taking orders was something that made Bucky cringe, so foreign and so not like his Steve.

“Time to go.” Bucky said quickly, and Steve and Sam both nodded, Sam leading the way out, their quiet escape unnoticed by the people who had come to take Steve from where Crossbones had trapped him. 

*****

The place that Sam brought them to was surprisingly non descript, a suburban neighborhood with quiet streets. The house was tall, a tall building with a tall fence, and Bucky could hear the hissing buzz of electricity coming off of it, though it looked to be mainly made of brick. That was the only thing that suggested that this was anything other than a normal house. 

Sam punched in a gate code and the gate swung open, letting them onto the grounds. Bucky could feel Steve’s eyes as they swept the entire area, same as Bucky and Sam had both done, and he had to suppress a rueful shake of his head, that all three of them automatically swept the area. It wasn’t the life he had wanted for himself, and definitely not for Steve.   
As they came to the door it swung open, revealing a young woman as she eyed them almost suspiciously, until she got to Sam. She visibly relaxed, looking around and then ushering them all in, though she still seemed to be wary of both Bucky and Steve. Sam led them into what looked to be a library, where they came upon an older man, who Bucky was vaguely aware that he had seen before. 

“Mr. Wilson, What can I do for you?” the man said, looking Steve and Bucky over, catching on Bucky’s face with recognition, and then finally resting on Steve’s arm. “You brought the Winter Soldier and Captain America here.” He said matter of factly, turning back to Sam, who was nodding almost guiltily. 

“Sorry Hank, but there was no where else to go, and I hear you’re pretty good at fixing things up.” Sam said, and Bucky realized who he was looking at. Hank Pyme, who’s company almost rivalled Tony Stark, who’s ingenuity was well known. 

“I can fix the arm, sure, but I don’t have the medical equiptment for the rest of this.” He said, looking warily at Steve, who stood ramrod straight against one of the walls. 

“I can go get the medical equiptment.” The woman said, and Hank nodded at her in acknowledgement as she turned and disappeared down the hallway. 

“This should make Peggy and me square.” Hank muttered, and with that Steve snapped to look at him, eyes narrowed. 

“Peggy. I know Peggy. What do you know about Peggy?” he said, voice low and rapid fire, and Bucky tensed to prepare to stop anything from happening, if need be. 

“She worked with my company for a time, keeping us in line and all that. If it wasn’t for her I’d probably be dead in a ditch somewhere.” Hank said, and Steve stared at him for a moment before nodding, seeming to almost relax with this information.

“Good.” Was all he said, but Bucky was glad to hear even that. Steve remembered Peggy, which was probably good, meant he had some more recent memories than just their childhood. 

This whole thing was going to be a mess, but they would be in it together. Bucky knew his falling out with Stark and cutting ties with the government was going to have major fall out, but he was certain that he could handle it, now that he knew Steve would be alright. 

And hopefully, one day he would have his Steve back. But that was a thought for another day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sort of a filler chapter, as Bucky, Sam, and Steve start home base with Hank and Hope Pym. They're starting to settle, and Bucky is starting to see that Steve is still his Steve, buried deep down but fighting to break free. 
> 
> But Bucky still feels alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, this one has sort of a little more gruesome description, mainly of Steve's mangled arm, so if that's a problem you can skip this chapter, it won't have a whole lot to do with the plot. I'll put the important information at the end notes.

Hank and Hope turned out to be an absolute blessing, along with their trusty sidekick Scott, freaking Ant Man of all people, the legendary guy who had kicked Sam’s ass, something that they would never let him live down. But lucky for them, Scott made friends by kicking ass, and with Scott came the Pym’s and their technological abilities. 

Hope was a life saver, literally, somehow retrieving whatever Sam said he needed, no questions asked. Bucky half expected her to have some form of magic powers, the way she disappeared and re appeared and had whatever it was they needed. But Bucky came to the conclusion that she was more Natasha like, and made a mental note to make sure they never ever meet. Under any circumstances. 

“So, Captain Barnes, how’s the modern world treating you?” Hank asked him, interrupting him mid shiver as he thought of the idea of Hope and Natasha meeting.

“Stark doesn’t have any flying cars, so it’s a bit of a disappointment honestly. You wouldn’t happen to be working on that, would you?” he asked, grinning over at the old man as he rolled his eyes.

“If I had a dime for every time someone asked about flying cars…” he muttered, before turning back to Steve’s now detached metal arm, picking it up and taking it out of the room with him as he headed towards what Scott and Sam had deemed to be ‘the Mad Science Lab’. 

It had been painful to watch, as they detached that monstrosity, ripping tendons and muscles and skin where it had grown into his body. The smell was atrocious, and honestly it was a miracle Steve was still alive, that the fallout of rejecting an entire limb hadn’t killed him the moment he came out of cryo. It was a testament to Steve’s stubbornness, a trait that they were quickly realizing hadn’t been entirely brainwashed out of Steve, and Bucky considered that to be a small victory as he watched Steve stare obstinately at Sam as he refused to sit in the chair Sam had placed in the middle of the room.

“Rogers, you’ve gotta sit, I need to clean out the wound and I can’t do that with you lurking in the corner like that.” Sam was saying, trying his damndest to coax Steve out of his position against the wall. 

“I’m functional.” Steve said, and Bucky could imagine the stubborn pout that used to always accompany that tone of voice. 

“Functional, my ass. You’ve been going seventy years with a metal arm involuntarily attached to your body, you’ve got blood poisoning and so many vitamin deficiencies that I’m surprised your brain even functions at all. Now get your ass in the chair.” Sam said, crossing his arms and staring Steve down, just as stubborn. They stared at each other for a long time, before Steve stood up from his crouch and made his way over to the chair, scowling at Sam as he went. Bucky hid a grin, the familiar gestures and emotions of Steve were still there under the surface, even if it still wasn’t his Steve. Something was better than nothing, at least, and this was something more than he had hoped for. 

“I was never out of the cold long enough for my failures to become a problem.” Steve said as he sat down, as if giving a report, a tone that Steve had used quite often over the past week. But at least he was talking now, outside of only answering direct questions. 

“Obviously not, you don’t look like you’ve aged a whole lot since you fell. I guess ice’ll do that to ya.” Bucky said, leaning against the wall opposite from where Steve sat and watching as Sam peeled away the bandages and exposed the rather gruesome sight of Steve’s mangled shoulder. Metal and bone were all exposed, showing where Zola had grafted a metal scaffolding to Bucky’s spine, an anchor for the heavy arm that had been tearing at Steve. The pain must have been and must still be excruciating, and Bucky wondered if Steve could even feel pain, or if such an inconvenient feeling had been programmed out of him with his memories. Bucky wasn’t sure if such a thing was possible, but he wouldn’t put anything past HYDRA at this point. 

“I don’t know how many times I was let out. I don’t remember all of them. I can’t remember everything that I’ve done.” Steve said now, voice grim and low, as if he was blaming himself for his own amnesia as well as all the things he had done. It made Bucky’s heart clench painfully, and he could see Sam shaking his head as he worked on Steve’s shoulder. 

“Doesn’t matter, punk, none of those things were your fault.” Bucky said, and Steve’s eyebrow quirked just as it always did when he disagreed with something. But he didn’t voice his disagreement, just sitting there quietly as Sam continued his work. It was a strange thing, Steve being silent, no jokes or smart ass comments or random songs that popped into his head. It was a strange thing, and Bucky didn’t think he could ever get used to such silence from Steve.   
Just as the unfamiliar silence threatened to consume them again, Scott appeared, toting behind him his merry band of criminals turned team of sidekicks. They filled the room with noise, and though it was a relief from the silence, he could see Steve tensing which was not a good thing at all. 

“I’ll go see what they’re up to.” Bucky said to no one in particular, pushing off the wall and ushering the rowdy bunch of men out the door and down the hallway, into the office and away from where Steve could hear them. Or at least where it wouldn’t be so loud. “You guys can’t just bust in there all willy nilly, it freaks Steve out.” he said to them once the door of the office was closed. The men shuffled around apologetically, before diving back into their enthusiastic conversation that had been taking place beforehand. 

“We got word about Stark, tell him Luis.” Scott said, turning to his friend and scooting him forward until he was standing in front of Bucky. 

“Well, my buddy heard from his sister, who heard from her aunt, who heard from her best friend who heard from her son, who heard from his girlfriend whose pops works at Stark Industries that your home boy has been snooping around with the government, really low key like, but he’s lookin’ in to some shit. Like, they don’t think he’s trusting the feds as much as everyone thinks he is.” Luis said, and Bucky’s eyebrows creased as he looked back at Scott. 

“Bit of a convoluted chain of information. Is it reliable?” he asked, and Scott nodded, patting Luis’ shoulder and stepping forward himself. 

“It’s more than that. That’s just how we got into thinking about it, but I got into Stark tower, took a look around myself. Stark doesn’t seem to be taking the whole deal at face value, but he still seems to be on board with the act itself. And he’s definitely looking for Rogers, got a lot of papers and schematics up, more math than I’ve ever seen in one place, and I hang around with Hank Pym.” Scott said, and Bucky nodded, contemplating this new information. He hadn’t expected Stark to be looking for Steve, but he knew he should have expected it. The Winter Soldier was infamous, and Tony didn’t know Steve. He knew of a killer, not a man. A killer who would need to be contained and tracked, just like Tony wanted to do with the rest of them. And that wasn’t a plan that Bucky could stand for. 

“Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.” he said, and they all nodded enthusiastically. 

“No problem, anything to help out Captain America, we all love you man.” Luis said, grinning, and it was funny to think that they had their own super hero amongst their friends, and they were still strange around him.

“Why don’t you guys love me as much as you love him? I’m a badass super hero too!” Scott complained jokingly, and the rest of them all booed, throwing napkins and other assorted objects at him and laughing. It was nice to watch, their strange comradery, and Bucky missed the Avengers, and the Commandos even more. It had been nice, to have a team and to have friends. He hoped that maybe someday he could have that again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who decided to avoid this chapter, here's the important information.
> 
>  
> 
> “Well, my buddy heard from his sister, who heard from her aunt, who heard from her best friend who heard from her son, who heard from his girlfriend whose pops works at Stark Industries that your home boy has been snooping around with the government, really low key like, but he’s lookin’ in to some shit. Like, they don’t think he’s trusting the feds as much as everyone thinks he is.” Luis said, and Bucky’s eyebrows creased as he looked back at Scott. 
> 
> “Bit of a convoluted chain of information. Is it reliable?” he asked, and Scott nodded, patting Luis’ shoulder and stepping forward himself. 
> 
> “It’s more than that. That’s just how we got into thinking about it, but I got into Stark tower, took a look around myself. Stark doesn’t seem to be taking the whole deal at face value, but he still seems to be on board with the act itself. And he’s definitely looking for Rogers, got a lot of papers and schematics up, more math than I’ve ever seen in one place, and I hang around with Hank Pym.” Scott said, and Bucky nodded, contemplating this new information. He hadn’t expected Stark to be looking for Steve, but he knew he should have expected it. The Winter Soldier was infamous, and Tony didn’t know Steve. He knew of a killer, not a man. A killer who would need to be contained and tracked, just like Tony wanted to do with the rest of them. And that wasn’t a plan that Bucky could stand for.

**Author's Note:**

> I plan on adding more to this, maybe some backstory and then more to what we have now, but I dunno, depends on if you guys enjoy it.


End file.
